(Scotland) Act 1987
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CONSULTATION ON REGULATIONS MADE UNDER SECTION 32A OF THE HOUSING (SCOTLAND) ACT 1987 Housing and Regeneration Directorate Housing Access and Support Division June 2008 1 SECTION 1 – PURPOSE OF CONSULTATION What is this consultation about? This consultation seeks views on proposed new Regulations made under section 32A of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 and guidance required to support these. Issues upon which we invite comments are set out throughout the paper and consultation response form is at Section 4. Section 32A of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 enables Scottish Ministers to define circumstances in which accommodation which is not permanent may be provided for unintentionally homeless households in priority need. The purpose of the proposed changes is to: • Clarify the purpose of the circumstances currently in statute; and • Introduce a further set of circumstances which would enable local authorities to discharge their duty to unintentionally homeless persons in priority need through provision of a Short Assured Tenancy (SAT). Who should respond? This consultation paper will be of interest to those with responsibility for strategic planning, delivery of and input to homelessness services in each local authority, and local partners working with them. Organisations with an interest in prevention of and tackling homelessness and providing support to homeless households will also have an interest. Organisations concerned with the private rented housing sector will have an interest in the proposals discussed at paragraph 16 onwards which relate to making greater use of the private rented sector to provide accommodation for homeless households. Participating in this consultation We are inviting responses to this consultation by 19 September 2008. Please send your response to: [email protected] or Housing Access and Support Division Area 1-H (South) Victoria Quay EDINBURGH EH6 6QQ We would be grateful if you would use the form at Section 4 or clearly indicate in your response which questions or parts of the consultation paper you are responding to as this will aid our analysis of the responses received. If you are replying electronically it would be helpful if the email header could read ‘Regulations under section 32 – consultation response’ and also include your name or that of your organisation if you are replying on behalf of an organisation. 2 This consultation paper has been distributed to a wide range of stakeholders; a list of those invited to respond is available on request. In addition, we will be organising meetings with landlord organisations, local authorities, groups representing tenants and other interested parties to discuss the proposals in this document. If you wish to receive information about these meetings please contact Carole Barker-Munro at the address above or by email: [email protected] . This consultation, and all other Scottish Government consultation exercises, can be viewed online on the consultation web pages of the Scottish Government website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations . You can telephone Freephone 0800 77 1234 to find out where your nearest public internet access point is. The Scottish Government now has an email alert system for consultations (SEconsult: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations/seconsult.aspx ). This system allows stakeholder individuals and organisations to register and receive a weekly email containing details of all new consultations (including web links). SE consult complements, but in no way replaces, Scottish Government distribution lists, and is designed to allow stakeholders to keep up to date with all Scottish Government consultation activity, and therefore to be alerted at the earliest opportunity to those of most interest. We would encourage you to register. Handling your response We need to know how you wish your response to be handled and, in particular, whether you are happy for your response to be made public. Please complete and return the Respondent Information Form at Annex D of this paper as this will ensure that we treat your response appropriately. If you ask for your response not to be published we will regard it as confidential and treat it accordingly. All respondents should be aware that the Scottish Government is subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and would therefore have to consider any request made to it under the Act for information relating to responses made to this consultation exercise. Next steps in the process Where respondents have given permission for their response to be made public (see the attached Respondent Information Form), these will be made available to the public in the Scottish Government Library by 17 October and on the Scottish Government web pages by 24 October. We will check all responses where agreement to publish has been given for any potentially defamatory material before logging them in the library and placing them on the website. You can make arrangements to view responses by contacting the Scottish Government Library on 0131 244 4552. Responses can be copied and sent to you, but a charge may be made for this service. 3 What happens next? Following the closing date, all responses will be analysed and considered along with any other available evidence to inform the new Regulations. We aim to issue a report on this consultation process and lay the Regulations in the autumn. Comments and complaints If you have any comments about how this consultation exercise has been conducted, please send them to: Anna Donald Housing Access & Support Division 1-H (South), Victoria Quay EDINBURGH, EH6 6QQ 4 SECTION 2 - BACKGROUND 1. The Scottish Government published the discussion document ‘ Firm Foundations: The future of housing in Scotland ’ in October last year. This set out a vision for the future of housing in Scotland, consisting of four key elements: • An increased supply of housing across all tenures, all of which is delivered on the basis of higher environmental and design standards. • More choice of housing that those on lower incomes can afford. • Housing developments that contribute to the creation of sustainable, mixed communities. • Social housing that provides better value for public expenditure. 2. To help realise this vision, the Government wishes to see the private rented sector (PRS) play a greater role in meeting local housing need. Within Firm Foundations the Scottish Government announced that they would consult on amending the Homeless Person Interim Accommodation (Scotland) Regulations 2002, 1 made under section 32A of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987, to allow local authorities more flexibility in discharging their homelessness duties, with a view to enabling wider use of the private rented sector where this will meet the needs of homeless households . 3. A review of the private rented sector was also announced and is currently underway. This is looking in particular at the role of the sector in helping to house low income individuals and families and those who present as homeless. 4. This paper fulfils the commitment to consult on amendments to the 2002 Regulations. This consultation is informed by an internal review process carried out by Scottish Government officials in the last few months and by responses received on the proposals contained in Firm Foundations2. Broadly, respondents were supportive of plans to make greater use of the private rented sector for homeless households although concerns were raised about security of tenure, housing benefit implications and meeting the support needs of this group. The consultation is also informed by the reports of the Homelessness Monitoring Group 3 and the 2012 Homelessness Support Project 4, published in March this year. Legislative Context 5. Generally, Scottish homelessness legislation requires that households assessed as unintentionally homeless and having a priority need for accommodation be offered permanent accommodation 5. This is defined in the legislation as accommodation which is a) secured by a Scottish Secure Tenancy; b) secured by an 1 Hereinafter referred to as the 2002 Regulations. 2 Firm Foundations: The Future of Housing in Scotland – An Analysis of Responses. Scottish Government Social Research, 2008. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/04/02094036/0 3 Helping Homeless People: Homelessness Monitoring Group Report – March 2008. Scottish Government. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/03/27142559/0 4 Towards 2012: Homelessness Support Project. Scottish Government, 2008. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/03/27152416/0 5 Section 31(2) of Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 (as amended). 5 assured tenancy that is not a short assured tenancy; or c) secured by a short Scottish Secure Tenancy (only where there is a history of anti-social behaviour). 6 6. However, section 32A of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987, as inserted by section 3 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001, gives Scottish Ministers the power to prescribe circumstances in which ‘permanent’ accommodation need not be provided to unintentionally homeless households assessed as having a priority need. 7. The 2002 Regulations contain the circumstances as currently prescribed. These are set out at Annex A. As currently construed, the Regulations can only be invoked in a tightly defined set of circumstances. The internal review process found that current usage was limited and the Regulations not widely known or understood. It is thought that the policy intention behind the Regulations